On March 14, a pair of educational webinars will examine finance issues and technology options for installing and maintaining anaerobic digester systems. The webinars are part of the Renewable Energy Education Field Day series to provide farmers, ranchers, landowners and community leaders with information to help decide whether renewable energy technology is a good fit in their operations.

The first webinar, “Financing an Anaerobic Digester System,” will be held from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. and includes dairy farmers and community leaders sharing their first-hand experiences with financing, installing and maintaining digester systems. Additional topics will include return on investment, private funding, government/private partnership funding options, cost of construction, potential revenue-generation streams, avoiding environmental costs, tax incentives and cost of operation, including management and labor.

The second webinar, “Technical Aspects of Anaerobic Digester Systems,” will be held from1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.  Speakers will examine digester technologies, such as psychrophilic (covered lagoon), mesophilic (plug flow and completely mixed), and thermophilic (completely mixed).  Farmer/operators will explain why they chose a specific technology and share their operational and management experiences.

Both three-hour webinars will originate from Rooms 325-326 of the Pyle Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  There is no charge to attend, but registration is required. For program details and to register, visit the Farm Foundation website at http://www.farmfoundation.org/webcontent/Renewable-Energy-Education-Field-Days-Anaerobic-Digester-Webinars-1752.aspx?z=85&a=1752.  Participants can view the webinars from a personal computer attend the on-site presentation.  For those participating at the Pyle Center, lunch will be provided between the webinars to allow more opportunities for interaction with the speakers.

The webinars are a collaboration of Farm Foundation, USDA Rural Development, USDA Office of Energy Policy & New Uses, the AgStar Program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, and the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative of the University of Wisconsin.